In 1954, UL (then Southwestern Louisiana Institute) paved the way for college desegregation in the South and across the nation, led by four African-American students and their families who sued for equal access to higher education.

1954, UL (then-Southwestern Louisiana Institute) became the pioneer institution in the South in desegregating. Part II of this serializaton looks at the lawsuits that led up to the integration of UL, of Louisiana, and eventually of the South.

In 1954, UL became the first school in the country to comply with the Supreme Court's desegregation order of Brown v Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. It also became the first historically white school in the South to desegregate in any permanent and meaningful way. UL alumnus and Appalachian State University historian Mike Wade chronicled UL's story in Higher Education and the Civil Rights Movement, published by the University Press of Florida.